Digby, a homegrown Austin company and developer of mobile commerce software announced yesterday that it had raised $8 million in a recent round of Series C funding in the wake of announcing the company’s partnership with AT&T Inc. (T) last week.
Investors include Mass.-based Battery Ventures, Canadian company BlackBerry Partners Fund GP Inc., and Austin-based companies S3 Ventures and Daylight Partners. Founded in 2007, Digby has increased its total amount of venture capital raised to $16 million and will use the recent round of funding as working capital to expand global operations and presence in the retail mobile commerce market.
AT&T announced it was teaming with Digby to re-sell the company’s mobile solution to retailers, allowing Digby more exposure to sell, design, deploy and manage mobile commerce web sites and apps optimized for smartphones. Billed as “Digby Mobile Commerce from AT&T,” the service also allows retailers the use of AT&T’s secure payments systems and to gain visibility into a retailer’s success by offering analytics on return on investment (ROI) benefits and consumer traffic.
“We have been a big supporter of Digby since our investment in 2008 and believe that the recently announced AT&T relationship shows that Digby is the leader in mobile commerce for retailers,” said Brian R. Smith, managing director for S3 Ventures. “We believe that this financing and AT&T relationship further accelerates Digby’s opportunity and broadens its appeal to retailers worldwide.”
Digby currently employs 120 workers and is successful in its niche of designing websites for mobile device shopping, boasting such clients as Brooks Brothers, Toys ‘R Us, The Home Depot, Costco, Petco, Cabela’s, Shop BlackBerry, 1-800-Flowers, and more.
Digby’s software is a fully managed suite of applications designed for iPhone and iPod Touch, Android, and BlackBerry devices. The company says it offers retailers the ability to unify their in-store, Web and catalog channels.
“Digby was one of the first companies we invested in when we started the BlackBerry Partners Fund in 2008, and we are thrilled to see how they have grown to become the market leader in enabling the mobile channel for top retail brands,” said Pierre Donaldson, partner of BlackBerry Partners Fund. “Our enthusiasm continues around Digby based on the market reality that smartphones will be the device people will use to engage in an increasing array of activities.”
According to Digby, half of all North Americans are expected to own a smartphone by the end of the year, with 56% of those surveyed predicting that using their phones to shop will make the experience more enjoyable. The company also cites that mobile barcode scanning increased 1,600% last year and that 73% of shoppers with smartphones report preferring the use of their devices to asking sales associates for assistance.
Digby also said that Michael Brown from Battery Ventures is now on the company’s board of directors and that the company had recruited senior software manager Mike Dansby as its new CFO.
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